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We read the whole of Hebrews
4, beginning with verse 1. Let us therefore fear, lest,
a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should
seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached,
as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit
them. not being mixed with faith in
them that heard it. For we which have believed do
enter into rest, as he said in Psalm 95, as I have sworn in
my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in
a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did
rest the seventh day from all his works, and in this place
again, if they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it
remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it
was first preached entered not in because of unbelief, again
he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, after so long a time, as it is
said, Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus, the Old Testament
equivalent of Joshua, for if Joshua had given them rest, then
would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth
therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered
into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did
from his. Let us labour therefore to enter
into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of
unbelief. For the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Seeing then
that we have a great High Priest that is passed into or more literally,
through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast
our profession. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Our text this evening is Hebrews
4, verses 12 and 13, which we shall now reread so that it's
firmly in front of us. For the word of God is quick
and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." Beloveds, Hebrews 3 and 4 develop
the truth of rest from the use of that word and the argument
in Psalm 95, which we sang earlier. Hebrews 4 itself speaks of three
instances of rest. First, there is the Old Testament
day of rest, the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, rooted
in creation. Second, there is the Old Testament
land of rest, the land of Canaan. This idea of rest marks a development
in the idea of rest even within the Old Testament. Third, there
is what we may call New Testament rest, rest in Jesus Christ, crucified
and risen from the dead, rest from sin, rest through faith,
the rest of covenant salvation. And this, of course, is a much
higher rest and the rest which is pointed to by the Old Testament
day of rest and the Old Testament land of rest. Verses 10 and 11 are the two
verses before our text. It is worth noting at this stage
that verse 10, I believe, refers to Christ's rest. and that Jesus
is the He mentioned in that verse. For He, Christ, that has entered
into His rest, He also hath ceased from His own works as God did
from His. So that the Lord Jesus ceased
from His work of purchasing our redemption and entered His rest
on the first day of the week, the Lord's Day, when He rose
from the dead. So the parallel in the verse
is that God ceased from His work of creation and entered into
His rest on the seventh day of the week, whereas Christ ceased
from His work of redemption and entered into His rest on the
first day of the week, which we call the Lord's Day. You see the parallel in verse
10. For he Christ that is entered into his rest, he also has ceased
from his own works as God did from his at the creation. Then verse 11 speaks about our
rest. And our rest is our entering
into Christ's rest. Let us labor, that is, let us
be zealous and diligent. Let us labor, therefore, to enter
into that rest, the rest of Christ, lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief, the example of the Old Testament people of
God in the wilderness. They didn't believe. They didn't
enter into the land of rest, and their carcasses fell in the
wilderness. Which brings us to our text in
verses 12 and 13. Our text explains why. Why we
should enter into that rest. and why we should avoid falling
into unbelief. How are we to do this? What practical considerations
does this Word of God give to us to help us to enter into rest
in Christ? Because I'm assuming you all
want to know more of this rest and peace in Jesus Christ. So, the question then is, what
is the contribution of our text to encourage us to enter into
this rest? Something, of course, that's
of help to us as we prepare to come as a congregation to the
Lord's Supper next Sunday morning. So, let us consider entering
God's rest first by knowing God's omniscience, that's verse 13,
and entering God's rest by experiencing God's Word, that's verse 12. If you were to go home and read
Hebrews chapter 4 without thought of this sermon, You might be puzzled why the
greatest chapter in the Bible on rest contains such a striking
affirmation of God's omniscience, that is, of God's knowledge of
all things, such as is contained in verse 13. God's knowledge
of all things is stated negatively and positively. Verse 13 reads,
neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight. And positively, all things are
naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. This same verse not only states
this truth negatively and then positively, but is very obviously
an all-embracing word. Neither is there any creature,
there are no exceptions, neither is there any creature that is
not manifest in his sight. But all things are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." In fact,
you could say that this verse contains much of the key biblical
vocabulary dealing with God's omniscience or His knowledge
of all things. It speaks of His eyes and even
the sight of His eyes. It says that everything is manifest,
opened to Him and even naked. This, of course, means very obviously
that God sees and knows all creatures, including and especially angels
and men, that He knows all things about all creatures, that He
knows all things about all creatures thoroughly, completely, eternally. In this regard, God is very obviously
so much different from all of mankind. God knows everything
about us so that He can always read us far more easily than
we can read a book. Even if we mask our face so that,
let's assume we are intending to be devious, our facial expressions
don't give us away. If we cover our eyes with sunglasses, to try and hide our feelings
because your eyes can sometimes reveal what you're thinking.
Obviously, that's no protection from God's omniscience. Sometimes,
too, as human beings who are sinful and live in a fallen world,
we do not say what we are thinking. Sometimes, too, it is wise not
to say what we are thinking And you can do that in the spirit
of charity and without breaking the ninth commandment. And if
we were to dwell in darkness, hiding ourselves away from everybody
else, living inside four walls, behind closed doors, all of this,
of course, would be totally useless with respect to the omniscient
God. And you are probably familiar
with Psalm 139 which explains some of these things and different
things much more fully. But these general truths about
God's omniscience only really count with us if we take these
things practically and individually to heart so that we can say personally,
Thou God seest me. And if we don't grasp that God
sees us, We can say all sorts of learned and nice things about
God's omniscience, but it doesn't make any difference to us. So that each and every child
of God here tonight must know that before God, though we are
nicely attired for Sunday worship, we are totally exposed, open
and naked. With Him we never have anywhere
to run, and there's nowhere where we can hide. The problem, so
to speak, with God's omniscience for us fallen, depraved people,
according to our flesh, is the sinfulness of mankind and of
us individually. This is what Jesus Christ said
God sees in our hearts. Mark 7 and verse 21. For from within, out
of the heart of men proceed, listen carefully, evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness,
deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from
within and defile the man. God sees it all. Hebrews 4.13,
neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight
but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with
whom we have to do." That is, he's the one to whom we must
give an account. To the wicked, the thought of
God's omniscience is understandably terrifying, which explains an
awful lot of human behavior. This voice, man's conscience
must be drowned out. We know that some people choose
to drown this out by getting drunk or high on drugs. Some people seem even to be afraid
of silence, so they must have music lest they should think
about something serious. Many people, even for this reason,
prefer busyness. and others—this is particularly
the spirit of our age—try desperately to convince themselves that God
is not by attributing the universe and life to time and chance and
evolution. But in general, this is a thought
that terrifies and scares mankind, that God sees and that God judges
righteously. This is also the attraction,
of course, of pagan religions and the false church with its
goal of salvation by man's own works and wills, a substitute
to placate the angry, righteous, omniscient God. As Jesus said,
men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are
evil. and they will not come to the
light, lest their deeds should be reproved." This truth of God's omniscience
is an important one in the context of Hebrews 3 and 4, which reflect upon Israel in
the wilderness. You remember that most of Israel
were unbelieving But the heart you see, and its unbelief, is
invisible. Man cannot see it. If you are
here tonight and do not believe in Jesus, nobody knows. They can't see your heart. This,
of course, given the foolishness of man, leads some to think,
well, can God really see that we Israelites don't believe? You will remember from your reading
of Exodus through Deuteronomy and the reflection of later scripture
that Israel's unbelief manifested itself especially in one thing,
murmuring, grumbling, and complaining. But most of the murmuring in
the visible church at that time was not public. It was in their
tents, in their own private living quarters. Moses and Aaron didn't
hear 99% of the grumbling and they couldn't hear it. Did God
hear it? Does God care? Most of the people
thought, not really. But of course, the fabric of
the tent and the darkness or no barrier to God's omniscience. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. God saw the invisible unbelief
in their hearts, heard their unbelieving murmuring, and caused
their highly visible carcasses to fall in the wilderness so
that they could not enter into the land of rest because of unbelief. And if we move for a moment to
the New Testament Scriptures, it's worth pointing out that
the truth of God's omniscience is especially mentioned in connection
with hypocrites among the visible people of God. Let me quote you some verses
from the Gospel according to John. John 5, verse 42, Christ's
words about the Jews. I know you that ye have not the
love of God in you. I know this about you. I see
your heart. The love of God is not there
in the visible people of God. In John chapter 2, we read concerning false professors
of Jesus these words when he was at Jerusalem for the Passover
and when many believed in inverted commas. where many believed in
his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not
commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and needed not
that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man." And then moving from the Jews
in general to the false professors of Jesus, To Judas, one of the
inner circle, the twelve disciples, the traitor, Jesus said, Have
I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? The other
eleven don't know who he is, but I know. I know the heart. And so later Jesus deliberately
gave him the sop and told him to hurry up and do what he was
planning to do, namely, to betray Him to the cross. Hebrews 3 verse 12 says, But
how is it that people really know and grasp
God's omniscience? I throw that out as an open question
for you. Think about it. How is it that
people really know and grasp and experience the truth of God's
omniscience personally? Because you'll understand that
this is a spiritual knowledge that simply does not come through
writing a philosophical dissertation upon it or even, by itself, reading
a theological book on the character of God. You understand, and I'm sure
everyone here understands, that it's relatively easy to grasp
this truth rationally as some sort of idea that flits through
the brain without it making any effect whatsoever upon your life,
without causing real fear of the Lord. And so the answer to the question,
how do you, how do I, know and feel the truth of God's omniscience
is this, by experiencing God's word as it searches and exposes
our own hearts. That's it. The Christian says,
in effect, I know that God is omniscient because I read the
Bible and I hear it preached on the Lord's Day, and through
this means God has showed me a little of what He sees in my
sinful heart and life." That's how you know. Really know. This is the connection between
verses 12 and 13 in Hebrews 4. In verse 12, The Word of God
comes and it is said to pierce our soul and spirit and discern
the thoughts and intents of the heart. And then verse 13 goes
on to speak of God's omniscience. So the connection is that it
is the Word of verse 12 that shows and brings home to me the
truth that God knows everything about me. You may have already gathered
from what I've said about the Word of God in verse 12 what
I personally take the Word of God to refer to here. The Word
of God in verse 12, the Word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword, is variously interpreted
or understood. Some say the word here refers
to the essential Word, the second person in the Holy Trinity who
became flesh for us and our salvation. The Word means Jesus Christ. Others say the Word of God here
is Scripture, the written Word. which is read and preached. And with most commentators, I
take it to refer to the latter, Scripture, though with the understanding
that Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word, is the one who speaks to
us through Scripture, the written Word. So it is that verse 12
begins by affirming three things about God's Word. Namely, one, quick. Two, powerful. And three, sharper than any two-edged
sword. I should clarify here the word quick. you understand
that quick here doesn't mean fast or speedy. Quick here means
living, as it does in the Apostles' Creed, which we read earlier. Jesus Christ comes to judge the
quick, or the living, and the dead. We speak of the quickening
of a child in its mother's womb when the child so moves that
the mother knows very clearly that there's a living baby inside
her, because it's showing signs of life, quick and life. So, the Word of God is quick,
that is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword
And these three things are not unrelated, they are intimately
connected. These three words concern the
Word of God's ability to penetrate and pierce us. To penetrate and pierce man's
heart or soul or conscience and so to judge our thoughts and
motivations and intentions. So if I were to ask you, what
is the most penetrating and piercing thing? What is it that can cut
our consciences to the quick, so to speak, and make us bleed
in our souls Because that's what cutting does, it makes us bleed.
You would have to say that something that's alive, something that's
living, will obviously penetrate further and quicker than something
that's dead or inert or idle. And obviously something that's
weak and futile won't penetrate as deep or as far as something
that's powerful. and effectual and active. It
can get deeper into us. And obviously something that's
dull or blunt won't cut as quickly or deeply, but something that's
sharp will, something that's really sharp, and something that's
sharp on both sides will penetrate further. And this soul penetrating and
heart piercing thing is the Word of God, for it is quick or living. It is powerful and it is sharper
than any two-edged sword. So it is sharp to pierce, it
has power behind it, a deep, hard thrust, and it is living
so that it can even guide itself. into our souls. Our text then underscores this
point further with two images. This Word of God pierces even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. That's the first
image. And I take soul and spirit to
be essentially the same thing. Soul, spirit, or even heart,
and mind, so that they all refer to man's inner spiritual nature,
though from different perspectives. When an attack says that the
Word of God pierces even to the dividing asunder of soul and
spirit, it's not to be taken literally as if the two could
be separated by a good, sharp, swift blow. because literally
man's soul or spirit are never divided. His body and his soul
can be and usually are divided at death, but not his soul and
spirit. So this is an emphatic and startling
way of speaking indicating how God's word pierces and penetrates
us. The second image is that the
word of God pierces even to the dividing asunder of the joints
and marrow. Now we're speaking about human
anatomy. The joints are where two bones meet. Two
bones meet, the bit in the middle, that's the joint. The marrow,
that refers to the inner part of the bone. We'll keep it simple
here. I have no interest in getting
technical. Now, one could refer literally to the dividing asunder
of two bones. You could separate them at the
joint. One could even speak, perhaps,
of the dividing asunder of the bone and the marrow within the
bone. But one cannot literally refer
to the dividing asunder of the joints between two bones and
the marrow within a bone. It doesn't literally make sense. But it makes sense. It's a hyperbolic
way of speaking of the piercing power of the Word of God. The Word of God not only, so
to speak, divides bones at the joints, or even divides the bone
from the marrow inside the bone, the Word of God divides joints
from the marrow that is inside the bone. Then verse 12 drops the imagery
and explains the hyperbolic imagery by saying
simply in literal terms, the Word of God is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart. That's the idea that the
imagery has been making. This is necessary because naturally
fallen man flatters himself. I do good. I mean well. I am good. But Jesus Christ comes through
the gospel and by His Spirit to expose man's heart to Himself
so that we know what's inside us. God already knows, but God
comes so that we know what's in us. And this Word of God that
pierces us is living and powerful and lethally sharp, so that it
penetrates and pierces, so that it cuts through the barrier and
armour of lies and self-justification and shows us what we really are
like. And the Reformed faith calls
this, what we're really like, total depravity. The Word of God shows us what
we really think and why our thoughts are sinful. It shows us what
our intentions really are and why they're evil. It shows what
is our true motivation, not what we told ourselves or said to
other people, but what really drives us. The Word of God, then, wielded
by Jesus Christ by his Holy Spirit reveals to us the pride in the
things that we say and the selfishness behind our deeds and the lust
for power and public acclaim, our own secret devilish motivations. And all of this is experienced
by us in one word. Think about it. Think about it
in the language of our text. A living, powerful, two-aged
sword that's lethally sharp thrust into us. That's going to be painful. The division of soul and spirit,
hyperbole, an overblown way of speaking, no doubt, But certainly,
that sounds painful. The piercing of joints and marrow,
that's going to be sore. This is the pain of a sharp,
cutting, penetrating blade going deep, deep inside us. And sometimes, The piercing work
of the Word of God showing us our sins in the light of God's
omniscience makes us cry out audibly, just as sometimes we
cry out with pain when, let's say, we hit our thumb with a
hammer. We cry out. Sometimes the Word of God is
so sharp, exposing our sins, that we simply cry. We cry. David did in the Psalms. That
was the sharp two-edged sword exposing his sin. Sometimes this
sharp two-edged sword thrust into us feels far sorer than
physical blows. Sometimes the Christian thinks
to himself, I would gladly exchange, if I could, the pain which I
feel over my own sin and folly for physical pain, because this
spiritual pain and grief of guilt is far worse. If you had asked David when he
was penning Psalm 51 which he would have preferred, there is
no question as to which answer he would have given. The guilt of our own sin. inner hidden sin that only God
knows as the omniscient one and which He then shows us by the
Word of God read and preached. And you can see the relevance
of this with regard to your coming to the Lord's Supper next Sunday
morning. the knowledge of sin and the
looking for all of our salvation outside ourselves in Jesus Christ
and coming as pierced sinners to the cross and to the supper
of the pierced one. And you will also remember the
context of the book of Hebrews. Hebrews especially is a warning. It's a warning against apostasy. more especially the warning of
individual apostasy, that is, of the professing Christian departing
from Jesus Christ for something else that seems more appealing
and leaving the church of the living God. Hebrews 4
verse 11 says, Lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. This can happen when the heart
grows cold to the things of Jesus Christ, when we drift away from
Him, when we are allured by the world, and when we aren't even
willing to admit it to ourselves. And that's what Hebrews 3 calls
at least it's an instance of it, the deceitfulness of sin. When a professing believer starts
to flirt with false doctrine, realizing how much easier it
would make his life. When he toys with dating an unbeliever
and even goes out with him or her. When he, unseen by his wife,
starts watching pornography on the internet, when he begins to fall away from
church attendance by missing services unnecessarily because
he doesn't really feel like it and his heart isn't in it, when
he starts to lust after someone else's spouse or even flirt at
work, and you could multiply those sorts of examples many
times, then the believer needs to feel the sharp edge of God's
Word and thereby start believing again the truth about God that
He really is omniscient, that He sees what I've been doing,
what I am doing. when we begin to bleed inwardly,
we confess our sin and put it away and go to the cross. The message of Hebrews 3 and
4 and Psalm 95 is that those who don't do this, their carcasses
fall in the wilderness. They don't make it to the eternal
land of rest. So let us labor and be diligent,
therefore, to enter into that rest. Let us rather be glad when
we are shown our sin than refuse it. Let us understand that true
spiritual rest does not come by saying, I don't want to see
my sin. I refuse to look at it. That may give some brief sense
of rest, but it won't bring the true rest of God. Let us rather understand that
through the sharp two-edged sword and the serious unrest that guilt
brings in our souls, that that is the only way to experiencing
the rest of God. because it leads us to Jesus
Christ in repentance and makes us focus on that rest which we
can only have in Him when He rose from the dead for our justification
on the Lord's Day. And in this consciousness, beloved,
let us look forward to and prepare for the Lord's Supper next Sunday
morning. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, bless to
us the Word of God and bless it to us particularly from the
perspective of this text that we may not love darkness, but
that we may love light and that we may open ourselves up to the
searching, penetrating power of Thy Word so that we may confess
our sins and come to Jesus Christ more and more and afresh as the
one who gives rest to our weary souls. For we pray in his name. Amen.
Entering God's Rest
Series Preparatory
- Knowing God's Omniscience
- Experiencing God's Word
| Sermon ID | 92813213544 |
| Duration | 46:34 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Hebrews 4:12-13 |
| Language | English |
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